Hospitals in Omaha, Nebraska

Hospitals in Omaha, Nebraska have been integral to the city's growth since its founding in 1857. The city has a number of hospitals that were founded by religious groups, and has many medical centers resultant from the mergers of various hospitals. Nebraska is also home to a VA facility that was the only hospital in the United States with a nuclear reactor.

St. Joseph's Hospital is the oldest healthcare facility in Omaha. The Sisters of Mercy opened the original facility on September 1, 1870. John A. Creighton established the John A. Creighton Medical College and provided funding to the hospital in 1892. It was originally located on lots donated by the Creighton family at 10th and Castelar Streets. A new building was opened at 30th and California Streets that combined both facilities.^[1]

The original Immanuel Hospital was located at North 34th and Meredith Avenues in North Omaha. Built alongside the Nazareth Home, the hospital was built in 1890. The four-story brick, gothic structure was severely damaged in a wind storm in early March, 1902.^[2] The original Clarkson Memorial Hospital was constructed in 1909 at 2100 Howard Street. Its five stories housed up to 80 patients.^[3]

The Douglas County Hospital was planned in 1887. Finished in May 1892, the building was rehabilitated in 1894, due to sub-standard materials and building practices.^[4] The original Methodist Episcopal Hospital, located at 20th and Harney Streets, was opened on March 3, 1891. Operated by the Methodist Episcopal Church, the hospital opened at 3612 Cuming Street in 1908, with a capacity to treat 2,000 patients per year. The hospital moved to 84th and West Dodge Road in 1968.^[5]

The Fort Omaha Hospital was opened in 1878 to care for soldiers wounded during the Indian Wars. Built along with several other notable buildings at the Fort, the hospital operated through the 1940s.^[6] The Ford Hospital in Omaha was built in 1916. It was a privately operated hospital built and operated by Dr. Michael J. Ford that operated until 1922. Ford was the last small, private hospital in the city.^[7][8] The Nicholas Senn Hospital was located at Park Avenue and Dewey Streets in Midtown Omaha. When it opened on February 1, 1912, the hospital was a modern, 60-bed building that featured one of the "finest x-ray machines in the U.S." Dr. Nicholas Senn, a member of the Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois, was the hospital's namesake.^[9] The Omaha Christian Institute founded Omaha's General Hospital in 1908. Sold to a private company in 1910, it was renamed Lord Lister Hospital. Located at 14th & Capitol Avenue, the building had 88 beds and treated 1,200 patients annually.^[10]

Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise, founder of American Reform Judaism, was the namesake of Wise Memorial Hospital, which was located at 406 South 24th Street. Sited on a lot donated by the wife of J.L. Brandeis, the facility was built in 1912 for $125,000. Between 1912 and 1917 the hospital treated more than 1,000 patients. In 1930, the institution closed,^[11] with the Lutheran Hospital Association purchasing the facility and opening Lutheran Hospital there 1931.^[12] St. Catherine's Hospital^[13] and Evangelical Covenant Hospital were other religiously affiliated hospitals in Omaha.

Omaha has a long history of racial segregation in hospitals and healthcare.^[14] In addition to preventing Black people from using the city's hospitals for a century, Jim Crow also prevented dozens of African American physicians, surgeons and specialists from using these institutions as well. In extreme circumstances, it was regular practice for Black doctors to leave their patients at the doors of a hospital to be attended by white doctors. Not only did this deny African American patients from their regular doctor's services, it also denied Black doctors' income from attending their regular patients at hospitals.^[15]

In response to this situation, there were several attempts to start segregated hospitals in the city's primary historic African American neighborhood called the Near North Side. Out of more than a half-dozen initiatives, one facility called the People's Hospital was launched and maintained by Dr. Aaron McMillan for five years before being closed by the City of Omaha.^[16] Additionally, Black healthcare professionals kept independent offices to serve their patients in North Omaha, South Omaha and downtown Omaha from the 1870s through the 1970s.^[17]

To this day, North Omaha is a healthcare desert with no hospitals and few healthcare clinics available throughout the community. Today, the Charles Drew Health Center, an independent 501(c)(3) organization, is one such provider that primarily serves the Black population in Omaha today.^[18]

• Nebraska Methodist Health System
• CHI Health
• Historic companies in Omaha, Nebraska
• Nebraska Medicine
• University of Nebraska Medical Center

• "A history of segregated hospitals in Omaha, Nebraska" by Adam Fletcher Sasse for NorthOmahaHistory.com
• "A history of hospitals and healthcare in North Omaha" by Adam Fletcher Sasse for NorthOmahaHistory.com